# 1981 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships

The 1981 ICF Canoe Sprint World Championships were held in Nottingham, Great Britain.
The men's competition consisted of six Canadian (single paddle, open boat) and nine kayak events. Three events were held for the women, all in kayak.
This was the sixteenth championships in canoe sprint.

## Medal summary
### Men's
#### Canoe

| Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| C-1 500 m | Olaf Heukrodt (GDR) | Gennadiy Liseichikov (URS) | János Sarusi Kis (HUN) |
| C-1 1000 m | Ulrich Papke (GDR) | Tamás Buday (HUN) | Jiří Vrdlovec (TCH) |
| C-1 10000 m | Tamás Wichmann (HUN) | Matija Ljubek (YUG) | Sergey Liminovich (URS) |
| C-2 500 m | Hungary László Foltán István Vaskúti | Soviet Union Edem Muradosilov Vigantas Zhekaitis | Bulgaria Liubomir Ljubenov Sevdalin Ilkov |
| C-2 1000 m | Romania Ivan Patzaichin Toma Simionov | East Germany Olaf Heukrodt Uwe Madeja | Soviet Union Edem Muradosilov Vigantas Zhekaitis |
| C-2 10000 m | Hungary Tamás Buday László Vaskúti | Romania Ivan Patzaichin Toma Simionov | Czechoslovakia Jiří Vrdlovec Petr Kubíček |

#### Kayak

| Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| K-1 500 m | Vladimir Parfenovich (URS) | Ion Bîrlădeanu (ROU) | Lars-Erik Moberg (SWE) |
| K-1 1000 m | Rüdiger Helm (GDR) | Ion Bîrlădeanu (ROU) | Einar Rasmussen (NOR) |
| K-1 10000 m | Einar Rasmussen (NOR) | Milan Janić (YUG) | István Fábián (HUN) |
| K-2 500 m | Soviet Union Vladimir Parfenovich Sergey Superata | Poland Waldemar Merk Daniel Wełna | East Germany Bernd Fleckeisen Frank Fischer |
| K-2 1000 m | Soviet Union Vladimir Parfenovich Sergey Superata | East Germany Bernd Fleckeisen Frank Fischer | Poland Waldemar Merk Daniel Wełna |
| K-2 10000 m | Soviet Union Nikolay Astapkovich Vladimir Romanovsky | Hungary István Szabó István Joós | Romania Ion Bîrlădeanu Nicușor Eșanu |
| K-4 500 m | Soviet Union Igor Gaydamaka Sergey Krivozheyev Jüri Poljans Aleksander Vodovatov | Sweden Jens Norqvist Lars-Erik Moberg Per-Inge Bengtsson Thomas Ohlsson | East Germany Frank-Peter Bischof André Wohllebe Rüdiger Helm Harald Marg |
| K-4 1000 m | East Germany Rüdiger Helm Frank-Peter Bischof Peter Hempel Harald Marg | Soviet Union Sergey Kolokolov Aleksandr Volkovskiy Alexander Yermilov Nikolay Baranov | West Germany Matthias Seack Andreas Flunker Frank Renner Oliver Seack |
| K-4 10000 m | Soviet Union Alexander Yermilov Nikolay Baranov Sergey Kolokolov Vasiliy Silenkov | Poland Leszek Jamroziński Andrzej Klimaszewski Ryszard Oborski Zdzisław Szubski | Great Britain Stephen Brown Christopher Canham Stephan Jackson Alan Williams |

### Women's
#### Kayak

| Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| K-1 500 m | Birgit Fischer (GDR) | Éva Rakusz (HUN) | Agneta Andersson (SWE) |
| K-2 500 m | East Germany Birgit Fischer Carsta Kühn | Sweden Agneta Andersson Susanne Wiberg | Romania Agafia Buhaev Maria Ştefan |
| K-4 500 m | East Germany Birgit Fischer Carsta Kühn Kathrin Stoll Roswitha Eberl | Soviet Union Natalya Filonich Larissa Nadviga Inna Zhipulina Lyubov Orechova | Sweden Karin Olsson Agneta Andersson Susanne Wiberg Eva Karlsson |

## Medals table

| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| 1 | East Germany (GDR) | 7 | 2 | 2 | 11 |
| 2 | Soviet Union (URS) | 6 | 4 | 2 | 12 |
| 3 | Hungary (HUN) | 3 | 3 | 2 | 8 |
| 4 | Romania (ROU) | 1 | 3 | 2 | 6 |
| 5 | Norway (NOR) | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| 6 | Sweden (SWE) | 0 | 2 | 3 | 5 |
| 7 | Poland (POL) | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3 |
| 8 | Yugoslavia (YUG) | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| 9 | Czechoslovakia (TCH) | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 |
| 10 | Bulgaria (BUL) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 10 | Great Britain (GBR) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 10 | West Germany (FRG) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Totals (12 entries) | Totals (12 entries) | 18 | 18 | 18 | 54 |